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The Color Purple, a la Shmoop: With Lavender and Mauve Right Behind.
Works of literature are filled with couples. Some go into the sunset together. . .
. . .while others go... somewhere else.
Celie and Mr... "blank"... from The Color Purple. . .
. . .had, what you might call, a dysfunctional relationship. . .
. . . until Celie had enough and left. After that, Mr Blank got his act together.
. . .and turned into a halfway decent guy. He and Celie even started spending time together
again. So, if he was such a changed man. . .
. . .why did Celie refuse his marriage proposal at the end of the book?
Could be that after everything he'd done to hurt
her. . .
. . .maybe she just didn't want to give him another chance.
And, let's not forget, it wasn't exactly a love connection in the first place.
Or maybe it was because she was still in love with someone else.
After what she had with Shug. . .
. . .she didn't want to accept anything short of the real thing. . .
. . .and may have wanted to keep her options open if Shug ever did decide to settle down.
Then again, maybe she just didn't want to spoil a beautiful friendship.
After Mr Blank's big change. . .
. . .he and Celie had worked hard to become friends.
And maybe Celie just wanted to keep it that way.
Or perhaps her hard-fought independence wasn't worth giving up for any man.
C'mon, who are we kidding? . . .
. . .She would have said yes to him. But she had already proven that she didn't
need a man in her life. . .
. . .so maybe she just liked being on her own.
Okay, then, why do you think Celie said no? Was she too hurt to give Mr Blank another
chance. . .
. . .still in love with Shug. . .
. . .afraid of ruining their new-found friendship. . .
. . .or reluctant to give up her independence? Shmoop amongst yourselves.